ur sincerity in this, for they culminated in
agreement on the terms of a detailed Treaty, under which a vast number
of territorial questions were settled to mutual satisfaction. We did not
either in 1912, as Admiral von Tirpitz appears to imagine, in the
conversation at the Schloss, or later on, offer territory that was not
our own but belonged to Portugal, or Belgium, or France. The contrary is
evident from the fact that the British government pressed Germany to
consent to the immediate publication of the draft Treaty, agreed early
in 1914, when signed. All we did on both occasions was to propose
exchanges with Germany of territory that was ours for territory that was
hers, to undertake not to compete for the purchase of certain other
territory that might come into the market, in consideration of a
corresponding undertaking on her part, and to agree about zones within
which each nation should distribute its industrial energies and give
financial assistance to undertakings.

The gallant Admiral gives an account of the meeting which took place on
February 9, 1912, in the Emperor's Cabinet room in the Schloss between
himself, the Emperor and myself. He represents me as making a "generous
offer of colonial territories which the English neither possessed nor of
which they had the least right of disposal, in order to flatter the
Kaiser's desires." Now in this impression the Admiral was wholly wrong.
What I spoke of was what I have just referred to, exchanges of parts of
our own territory for parts belonging to Germany, and undertakings such
as I have just referred to. These things I had considered the previous
day with the Chancellor, and I do not think the Emperor was in the least
under the impression which von Tirpitz entertained. The matter was
indeed not one with which the Department of the Minister of Marine was
likely to be familiar. My suggestions were made in accordance with my
instructions, and were, of course, _bona fide_ in all respects. What I
was pressing for was the means for making possible a slackening in naval
construction on both sides, and for acceptance of the Entente and of our
position in it. What I desired was to extend its friendly relations so
as to bring Germany and Austria and Italy within them and get rid of
anxiety about the balance of power and the growth of armaments. I think
the Emperor throughout understood this, and certainly the Chancellor
did. Tirpitz appears to have suspected, in an attitu